


Please Come Home With Me... Again

by ItFeelsLikeHome



Series: The Robert Sugden Break Down [3]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Kissing, M/M, Reunion 3.0, Robert in prison, Robert released, Sexy Time, hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2020-07-27 22:43:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20053744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ItFeelsLikeHome/pseuds/ItFeelsLikeHome
Summary: Starts off from Aaron's new boyfriend's perspective as he knows Aaron is only biding his time with him until Robert returns after spending 10 years in prison.  I thought I would set it from another person's POV first - and I thought the other man would have been interesting to do.Then it's all from Aaron's POV as he reunites with Robert.





	Please Come Home With Me... Again

They haven’t had sex in weeks, not since Aaron’s ex returned to Emmerdale. Robert Sugden is his name, and Mark hates everything about him. From that smug smile to that blonde hair that he’s sure Aaron thinks is a halo. 

It started with Aaron becoming moodier than usual and there were whispers of, “He’s back,” echoing throughout The Woolpack. Then there was Chas treating Aaron like a package marked “Fragile”. Those secretive looks they shared when they were convinced he was oblivious. Her constantly asking if Aaron was okay, or whether he’d seen R. 

But he could never be oblivious, not when Aaron still wears the silver band and had bitten off the top half of Mark’s body when he’d asked why Aaron hadn’t taken it off. That question came after they had been sharing a bed for a few months. He couldn’t be oblivious when he witnessed all those images around Aaron’s flat: Aaron care-free and happy standing next to a gorgeous blonde. Those images show the man Aaron had been years ago. There’s not even a trace of that man today. 

After a few days, Mark walked into the pub intent on having a meal with his boyfriend, only to find Aaron in a booth having an intimate conversation with this Robert. It was obvious from the look on Aaron’s face, smile beaming like a chandelier, that it wasn’t over between them. It wasn’t just the smile, but the way Aaron was staring at Robert with the intensity of an erupting volcano. He’d walked over to them, forced out a polite, “Hello,’ and witnessed the way Aaron’s body language had shrivelled up like a dying flower, witnessed the look of sadness in Robert’s eyes that meant the blonde didn’t stay around for very long. 

“I best get going. I said I’d go see Vic.” He got up, shoulders hunched and head low, walking a few steps before glancing behind. 

Mark could see Aaron’s attention turn to Robert leaving and how his eyes seemed to become glassy with unshed tears.

“Do you fancy ordering?” he’d asked Aaron, but he knew he’d be sleeping at his own flat that night. 

“I’m not hungry anymore. I’ll call you later.” Aaron left the pub, the same exit that Robert had walked out of only moments earlier. 

Mark doesn’t hear from Aaron for a week, doesn’t even get invited back to Aaron’s flat again. Instead, they meet in The Woolpack. Aaron is already halfway through a pint and there’s one waiting for Mark on the round table. He folds a piece of paper up and slips it into his coat pocket before turning to Mark. 

“You been here a while?”

Aaron nods before taking another swig of his drink. Then he takes a gulp, chewing on his bottom lip before speaking. “Thanks for meeting me here. We need to talk.”

Mark doesn’t even wait for whatever line Aaron might spin him; he jumps right in ready to wade through the bullshit. “It’s Robert, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. It’s always been him, and I can’t pretend that it’s any other way. Not now he’s back in the village and out of prison. We have to break up. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Your heart was never in it and you were just biding your time with me.”

“I’ll drop your things off tomorrow.”

“I could come and get them now?”

“No, I have to go.” Aaron glances at the clock on the bar wall. 

“What?”

“I need to go and speak to Robert before he leaves for good.”

***

Aaron doesn’t stay to answer Mark’s questions, can’t believe he wasted the last few weeks with that man when Robert had returned. He storms towards Vic’s house, bangs on the front door feeling vague memories of the last time he did this. Robert doesn’t hesitate and answers after two thuds.

“I’m sure Vic wouldn’t appreciate you wrecking her door,” Robert says. His face is beautiful and Aaron realises how much brighter, warmer and more colourful his world is just by looking at Robert’s face. It’s aged slightly in the ten years that they have been parted, but it still manages to stun him with how attractive he is. That jawline can still cut glass; those lips and their pout are still the most gorgeous lips he has ever seen; and those eyes - even in the dimming sunlight - are still able to reach into his and say a thousand things with just one look. 

“Don’t be a smart arse.” His hand dips into his coat pocket, grabs onto the piece of paper - the one that says “Ask me to stay” in Robert’s scruffy writing. He pulls it out of his pocket and waves it at Robert. “What the hell do you think this is about? You’ve only just come back and you’re leaving again.” He feels his face get redder and his eyesight blurry with unspent tears. “You’re giving up on us.”

“No. You did that when you shacked up with that waste-of-space Mark.” 

“You told me to live my life without you. You refused my visiting requests. Do you know how much that hurt?” He gulps away the pain and tears before continuing, but realises that they will return again soon. The emotions and pain at Robert giving up on them never stays dormant for too long. It usually attacks him when he’s driving or in the shower or in their bed. “How much it still hurts that you pushed me away when I knew you needed me the most. And here you are leaving again. Don’t I mean anything to you?”

Robert steps over the threshold onto the concrete path, moves inches from Aaron, so that his hand can rest on Aaron’s neck. The simple act creates tingles under his skin. “You mean everything to me. That’s why I’m here now. I wanted to serve my time and come back to you, to us.”

He knows every fleck of blue and green in Robert’s eyes, how the dusting of freckles covers his husband’s face, how the spicy aftershave Robert uses still makes him think of their first time in the backseat of that car nearly fifteen years ago. 

“3670 days.”

“What?” Robert moves away slightly trying to comprehend the number. 

He hates the gap Robert is creating between them and finds himself closing it again, moving in again to press his body up against Robert’s. “The number of days we weren’t together.”

Robert’s blue-green eyes search his, while ridges form between his eyebrows. “You counted them all?”

He nods. “I had a little notebook nicked from the scrapyard and I would tally up how many days you were gone hoping that each day would bring you back.”

“I’m sorry I pushed you away. I was in a really bad place then, but believe me I have spent all of those days regretting it. I thought you would be better off without me. That you should live your life without me.”

“But my life is with you. We made those vows, Robert.” He sighs - a big breath that he didn’t know he was holding in until now. “Don’t you get that?”

He starts sobbing, uncontrollable tears that he can’t quieten. Robert holds him, wraps his arms around his back and they stay there for what seems like a lifetime. He never wants Robert to let go of him. 

Robert whispers into his neck. “I love you, Aaron. It’s the only thing that’s kept me going. And I’m sorry. I told you I was going to mess up.”

“But we sort through it together. Always together.” He turns his head to brush his stubble against Robert’s cheek before their lips find each other. And then every nerve ending comes alive as he kisses Robert, runs his hands through Robert’s blonde hair, fills every sense with how amazing it is to have Robert in his arms. 

Robert. Always Robert. There would never be another man for him but Robert.

“Please come home with me... again.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” Robert smirks at him and closes Victoria’s door behind them.

And like that day over eleven years ago, they walk down Main Street, hand in hand, to the Mill to continue their life together. 

They take their time, clothes aren’t ripped off in a hurry, but every kiss, touch, lick is sensual that he feels it right down to his bones. It makes him shiver with want and elation and pleasure. They move together under the bedcovers, fiery passion still thrumming away with each movement Robert makes inside of him. In that moment, with Robert looking up at him, the burn of Robert’s kisses all over his body, he realises that he had been living half a life, a lie, for the last ten years of his life. It doesn’t take long for Robert to come but once he does, they hold each other and whisper, "I love you," and promise to never let each other go.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have the time, and you liked this, please leave me a comment. :-)


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